The Amber Room: Long Lost Treasure

moved again

In the 1740s, Empress Elizabeth became the ruler of Russia. She had not forgotten the Bernsteinzimmer and she employed the services of Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, renowned Italian architect, to fit the amber panels into one of the rooms of the Winter Palace. But because the room was too large, Rastrelli not only used mirrored pilasters to fill the void, he painted supplementary panels in "fake amber."

The journey of the masterpiece was far from over, as it was transferred once more in 1755, this time to the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo by Catherine the Great. Again, the room in which it was to be housed was too large and the same method was used to fill the gaps.

Not happy with the results, Catherine petitioned the new German king Frederick II the Great, and the latter sent some Baltic amber from Berlin to finish the job adequately.

The room was eventually completed by 1770. But no one had taken into consideration the damage temperature changes and stove heating could inflict upon the Bernsteinzimmer. It therefore had to be renovated in 1833, 1865, in the 1890s, and again in 1941.

final masterpiece

When the job was completed, the Amber Room was a sight to behold. It had a series of huge wall panels inlaid with quite a few tons of brilliantly carved first-rate amber, four Florentine mosaics, and elongated wall mirrors. The amber was arranged in three tiers. All in all, there were over 100,000 pieces of carved amber paneling covering 592 square feet.

Four of the panels enclosed pictures made of semiprecious stones such as jasmine, onyx, quartz, and jade. The Florentine design of artist Giuseppe Dzokki depicted the five senses: taste, sight, smell, sound, and touch.

In one of the room's corners was a table made out of amber. There were also Russian inlaid wood commodes, a vase of Chinese porcelain, and the world's greatest collection of amber art pieces dating to 17th and 18th century Germany, Russia and Poland. The unofficial moniker of "The Eighth Wonder of the World" was richly deserved.

destruction

With WWII approaching, the fate of the Bernsteinzimmer hung in the balance. Operation Barbarossa saw the German armed forces invade Russian territory. Fearing for the national treasure, which was deemed too fragile to be evacuated, authorities began a camouflage effort.

They began applying ordinary wallpaper and gauze over the panels to hide them, but the Nazis weren't fooled. After they conquered the region, they disassembled the work of art and shipped it to a castle in Knigsberg, near the Polish border, where it was displayed.

Nevertheless, a war was underway and nothing was sacred. British forces bombed the area, as did the Soviets. After 1944, no one ever saw the Amber Room again.